In 1804 licenses for beer only were issued at a lower rate than spirit licenses, but appeared to have been discontinued before 1810.
Macquarie found that in spite of these regulations there were numbers of unlicensed houses in Sydney, and a great many more licensed ones than were at all necessary.[1] Taverns were found thickly clustered, especially in the wildest and wickedest part of the town, known as "The Rocks". The spirits sold, the Bengal and Jamaica rum, were of a particularly fiery kind, though probably not as deleterious as the gin which had wrought such havoc in England. Macquarie sought at once to bring the trade within reasonable limits. The cost of the license was raised to £20 and the number of houses reduced to thirty-one for the whole settlement. Twenty only remained in Sydney. The penalty for unlicensed vending was raised to £20, half of which together with half the stock was to go to the informer.[2]
The illicit trade continued, and probably the drastic reduction in the number of licenses tended to encourage it. In June the Governor gave notice that he was "resolved to prosecute such persons" (the unlicensed publicans) "with the utmost rigour of the law, and to have them most severely punished for so daring a breach of the Orders and Regulations of Government."[3] The gains of illicit dealing, however, far out-balanced the fines imposed.
In the same year the question of beer licenses was again brought forward. When the grant of separate licenses had been discontinued those houses and those houses only which were licensed for wine and spirit could retail beer. The reduction in their number curtailed the brewers' market, and a revival of beer licenses was suggested as profitable for them and also for those publicans whose houses had been closed by the reduction in the numbers of licenses. Some of the latter petitioned the magistrates on the 22nd June, praying for licenses to retail beer and ale. As they were "reputable housekeepers" the Bench recommended nearly fifty of them to the Governor.[4]
